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InXile Details Wasteland 2's RPG Goals

As studios have sought to "streamline" traditional RPG mechanics in recent years, players have been given fewer character creation and customization options. As a result, many RPG loyalists have felt short changed by the likes of Dragon Age 2, Skyrim, and most recently Diablo 3. Count Brian Fargo and the team at inXile among them. Fargo et al want to put the role playing back into RPG, and they've outlined exactly how they plan to do it with Wasteland 2.

If you chipped in on the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter, you should have received an update email from inXile this morning. In it, Fargo and his team describe in detail how they believe RPGs have turned down the wrong path, and how Wasteland 2 will get back to core RPG fundamentals. As an old-school RPG fan, I couldn't be more thrilled.

"RPGs haven't kept pace with time - they've regressed and even worse, taken pride in less role-playing than before," inXile states. "Important elements have been lost over time, sacrificed to technology, art constraints, voice-over expenses, and multi-platform console constraints. Wasteland 2 has no such limitations, it brings these RPG elements back, takes them out of the attic, and makes them part of gameplay again."

A breakdown on Wasteland 2's RPG goals:

Customization: The ability to customize, alter, and improve your characters by investing in a detailed and varied list of statistics and skills.

inXile says: "The amount of customization you can assign to your skills and stats help paint a detailed, vibrant personality for your characters… and give you added options when exploring the wasteland."

Customization Plus: Ability to customize your character portrait, as well as your own weapon and ammo based on what you find in the game world.

inXile says: "Make the world, the interface, the playstyle, and your character yours, and role-play the way you want to."

Interface that Caters to You: Customize the interface layout and design.

inXile says: "With the range of game mechanics permitted inside and outside of combat, we don't want to limit you solely to customizing your character - we allow you to customize your interface to match your playstyle and choose the "language" and format with which you communicate with the game."

Band of Brothers: A focus on creating a party of characters and party-based gameplay.

inXile says: "Creating a party of individuals with depth and freedom is something unique to Wasteland and reinforces the Rangers as an organization – not only are you fighting to build communities, your Rangers are a community, too, and you can feel that in the gameplay mechanics and interactions."

NPCs: Unique and deep non-playable characters who join your party throughout the game with their own distinct motivations, abilities, and personalities -- all which will impact the story.

inXile says: "The feeling is that you'll be traveling with characters, not drones with certain skill sets, and knowing their personality strengths and motivations is one of the most important tools for survival."

Open World: Go anywhere you want in the Wasteland, explore, and discover.

inXile says: "This world is buzzing, burning, and alive around you. It isn't a world you have to explore, it's a world you want to explore."

A Beckoning World, Not a Forced March: Gameplay elements will encourage players to explore the world, not force them down a set path.

inXile says: "Wasteland 2 baits you and lures you into exploring a variety of ways – the promise of what lies in a ghostly skyscraper in the depths of downtown LA, in the floating wreckage of submerged harbors and in the lower decks of abandoned cruise liners, tracks that lead to an old mine shaft in a mountain side..."

Narrative Depth: Dialogue and interactions that elevate the story and create a deep narrative experience.

inXile says: "Dialogue and interactions in Wasteland 2 are intended to carry the same thrill of reward and knowledge that exploring an abandoned weapons factory might… and provide one of the best ways to learn about the culture and attitude of a faction, cult, or gang in a region."

Words as Weapons: The words you choose can cause an effect-chain that leads to, for example, a firefight you can win without ever firing a bullet.

inXile says: "There's nothing like the threatening urgency that comes when a guard with an itchy trigger finger stops you to demand the password, and you're wracking your brain to try and find the right word that comes to mind."

The World is Watching You: The game world reacts in meaningful ways to who is in your party, your appearance, your choices, your health, and more.

inXile says: "The world acts in predictable and unpredictable ways, but there is reason, logic, and reactivity that can be seen, studied, and eventually used to your advantage once you learn the ways of the world."

Cause and Effect: Not only will the game world react on a micro level based on your party, choices, and appearance, it will react on a macro level with real consequences that result from your actions over time.

inXile says: "You don't make just one ripple in the water, you can keep sending ripples outward by repeatedly tossing stones into the world to keep the effects going. This was one of the pillars of Wasteland that made it unique, and we'll uphold it and evolve it in Wasteland 2."

One Goal, Multiple Rangers, Multiple Paths: Control up to seven characters (four rangers and three NPCs), with the ability to give them each separate and specific commands (sneak, fight, talk). With control of different characters and abilities comes a wide range of options in how to tackle objectives.

inXile says: "An RPG's main strength is allowing you to approach a quest, situation, or even an adversarial character in multiple ways and using your attributes, skills, or items to solve a problem. In Wasteland 2, even the range of options for something as simple as a locked door puzzle provides multiple choices for strategy."

InXile also notes that Wasteland 2 will feature a unique style, the franchise's trademark dark humor, modding tools, and extensive community involvement. What's your take on the studio's approach to Wasteland 2?